No More Special Little Freedom Zones
Honduras makes Próspera illegal: On Friday, the Honduran Supreme Court ruled ZEDEs—special economic zones that are still bound by criminal law but able to create their own civil codes—illegal following President Xiomara Castro’s yearslong campaign against them.
“Justice for the Honduran people,” wrote Castro following the decision “means not selling off our territory piecemeal or privatizing our sovereignty.” That, of course, is not an accurate way of representing what ZEDEs do: They essentially allow new charter cities to be established, and they get to set their own laws and regulations and typically choose to create more business-friendly conditions with less taxation.
The ruling not only means the establishment of new ZEDEs will be prohibited but also possibly complicates the operation of existing ones, like Próspera, which Reason has covered:
Próspera officials told Reuters that the Supreme Court decision could cause “visas to be canceled, the suspension of support and even a disruption in the flow of remittances” but it’s unclear how exactly this will play out in practice. The Court will publish an addendum that will detail how this ruling affects Próspera and other already existing charter cities like Ciudad Morazán.
Would-be Trump assassin charged: On Tuesday, Ryan Routh—the 58-year-old gunman who was apprehended after hiding out on a golf course with a gun seemingly looking to shoot former President Donald Trump—was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami on charges that he attempted to assassinate a presidential candidate. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
Routh was also charged with possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, as well as assaulting or intimidating a Secret Service agent. Routh was already facing two gun charges, and has a long criminal record, including a 2002 conviction for possessing a weapon of mass destruction.
The case has been randomly assigned to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the South Florida judge who earlier this year dismissed Trump’s federal classified documents case—a decision that’s currently being appealed.
Scenes from New York: The chancellor of New York City’s public schools, David Banks, has said he will resign his post in December. “The announcement came just weeks after federal agents seized Mr. Banks’s phone as part of a bribery investigation involving his brothers and fiancée,” reports The New York Times, “and it promised to roil not just the nation’s largest school system but also a mayoral administration already reeling fro
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